Envision Your Future
A Vanguard & Adobe Collaboration
Overview
The "Envision Your Future" experience aimed to provide Adobe employees in the early stages of their careers with essential guidance on achieving their financial goals, focusing specifically on retirement planning. This innovative initiative was showcased at three of Adobe’s annual benefit fairs in San Jose, San Francisco, and Lehi using cutting-edge technology.
Background and Context
Client Insights
The project targeted key challenges that many employees face regarding financial literacy and planning:
Roth in-plan conversion and after-tax savings
Employees were uninformed about how to utilize their benefits effectively.
Awareness deficit
A significant number of employees had little understanding of the available retirement plans, indicating the need for innovative engagement strategies.
Tax efficiency education
Employees lacked knowledge on how to manage their savings in a tax-efficient manner.
Target Audience
The primary audience consisted of Gen Z and Millennial employees who are navigating significant financial decisions:
Coping with student loan debt and developing financial literacy.
Preparing for major life events like buying homes and starting families.
Managing day-to-day expenses while planning for retirement and investing.
Experience Design
Conceptualization
Through workshops and collaborative sessions, we developed an immersive experience focused on fostering discussions around participants’ financial habits and goals, highlighting the long-term benefits of investing for retirement.
Technology Implementation
The experience utilized the Apple Vision Pro, enabling participants to engage with the content in a distraction-free environment. This immersive approach ensured that participants could focus entirely on their financial futures without typical distractions.
Experience Walk Through
Proof of Concept (POC) Goals
We aimed to:
Demonstrate the "Envision Your Future" experience to at least 100 Adobe attendees.
Measure engagement, perceptions, and post-experience intentions among participants.
Results
The POC exceeded expectations, reaching approximately 200 employees, including executives, across three locations. The outcomes were remarkable:
97% reported an improved perception of Vanguard as an innovative company.
99% would recommend the experience to a colleague.
95% felt more motivated to improve their retirement savings.
92% learned more about their financial well-being.
97% were positively influenced by the concept of envisioning their future selves.
97% expressed intent to act on Roth conversions discussed in the experience.
Participant Feedback
“This changed my perception of Vanguard.”
“I was so focused on the experience that I actually learned something. I often get distracted when reading about plan benefits, but you literally can’t get distracted while wearing Apple Vision Pro. It held 100% of my attention.”
“I wouldn’t have thought of Vanguard as a company that would do something cool like this.”
Luca Maestri - Vice President Corporate Services - Apple
“We are seeing excitement in Enterprise, leading organizations across many industries such as Walmart, Nike, Stryker, Bloomberg, and SAP have started leveraging and investing in Apple Vision Pro.”
Conclusion
The "Envision Your Future" experience demonstrated the power of using extended reality to drive meaningful engagement and education regarding financial planning among early-career employees. By targeting specific pain points and using innovative technology, Vanguard and Adobe successfully transformed perceptions about financial literacy and inspired a proactive approach to retirement planning.
The success of "Envision Your Future" illustrates a significant step forward in using technology to empower employees to take control of their financial futures.